F for Fake is a 1973 documentary film directed by Orson Welles. “It is an exploration of art forgery, deception, and the nature of truth.” (Perplexity AI). It’s a must watch.
I have this masterpiece’s title in mind every single time I see a recent car model during commuting.
I’m sure a big part is my OCD. As an architect you’re somehow preloaded with an eye that goes calibrating, assessing and restructuring the materiality of things.
You know that guy that comes into your house and starts leveling and aligning your wall’s art, right?
It’s an everyday torture. The one you need to meditate, run or play in order to settle.
But I’m not afraid to declare that there’s a design crisis in the automotive world.
An identity and existential crisis.
This is a settling rant about an everyday design obsession.
Some time ago, perhaps around 10 years, car design was still true to its function.
Perhaps you didn’t like a particular design from a particular brand, but more or less cars had congruency. If the car was an utilitarian truck, it would be that, it would have an open box in the back, with the space and shape that would reflect its function. If the car was a sports car, it would have aerodynamic features in the body so to favor performance.
Even hybrids back then were simple, some were not good looking (the new Prius is great), but they wouldn’t be selling something they’re not.
With the advent of electrification for mobility and the pressure (a good one) of coming to terms with climate change, and to attract more people into EVs, car manufacturers have been using and faking dated features into their designs.
This has permeated to “normal” motorized cars as well, for example to some non-electric Volkswagen models like the Tiguan.
VW has had (historically) a shared elegance and refinement into the full range of their models. It’s been a coherent brand with their design. But not recently.
Now, for some strange reason, you’ll find things like fake exhausts on the rear and fake vents on the front. The actual exhaust pipe is hidden behind the bumper facing down, but the bumper will still have this very “aesthetic” closed shapes on each side that suggest the reminiscence of a sportier exhaust, in the same way other electric vehicle brands use fake exhausts. I find this “small” design gesture worse, given that VW had their diesel crisis for faking emissions statements some years ago.
Have you ever seen a bicycle faking it?! With flaps and fins and pipes? Of course not. The Bicycle is the greatest most straightforward, functional, beautiful design ever.
Any bicycle, from expensive to economic. It’s democratic. They can be lightweight or heavy, carbon fiber or steel, but they are the result of their function. Even electric bicycles aren’t pretending to be motorcycles or something.
Fake vents and exhausts are the worst of this existential crisis because you’re not only lying about the actual aerodynamics and performance of the car, but it’s like if you would have to be treated like someone who doesn’t accept or understand change.
There are very few brands that are focused on great design.
You could bet which designers studied the likes of Dieter Rams or someone similar.
Don’t get me wrong, simplicity for simplicity is not what I’m talking about. I’m not rooting for a minimalist approach perse. Car design ideally has to be functional the same way a house reflects its structure and program on the volume.
You don’t put fake doors, fake windows and fake ducts on a house just because you want a particular composition, or to make someone “think” you have more rooms or entrances. I mean it’s been done, it has happened and it’s part of some very particular style or author, but in the general consent, you wouldn’t fake a structure or an element in the façade of a house or building.
I think it’s very disappointing that car manufacturers and designers think they can trick us with some sort of bait in order for us to choose a car that looks faster or more powerful or whatever. More to the point if it’s an electric vehicle or hybrid.
I think it’s ridiculous. Stop adorning cars! (this sounded like Jerry Seinfeld in my head)
Very few manufacturers have their ideas put together. Porsche is a great example. They’ve been consistent in their design, particularly with the 911 from 1963 to 2025. You won’t find a Porsche faking some performance or motorization feature.
There are other brands in the same bracket that you would find completely all over the place. It’s like if they would hire different designers for their different models. And I’m talking (in my personal opinion) brands like Ferrari for example, which I would say were the most beautiful cars from The 80s backwards.
I have to be fair with Mini. I used to own a 2022 model that had Real vents! Performance oriented air-flow aerodynamic brake cooling vents! It was awesome. But that’s about it. To find a vehicle in that segment with the same integrity is hard.
I’m embracing the electrical vehicle era, I think it’s necessary. I think it has purpose. But I don’t think they have to trick us putting additional “cool designs” in the body in order to make us buy them.
Which are today’s truthful car manufacturers? You can count them with one hand, the ones that are congruent and beautiful.
Volvo for example is doing a great job with their simple-functional Scandinavian design. They’re not faking elements to attract. They’re focused, clear, elegant. And yes, super safe! (You know the slogan).
Our world is living one of the biggest transformations in culture.
On one extreme we have everything digital and in the other I believe there’s a resurgence of the analogue and mechanical.
Paradoxically, as we embrace the non-human assistance into our everyday tasks and products, we are also seeking to be more in nature, into people and awareness, thus creating blurred outputs of everyday objects that reflect today’s cultural transition and confusion.
What is wrong or right? Which is the good side? The sane leader? The objective podcast guru?
All this existential manifestations create an identity crisis all the way into Design.
So, I would say that as a general rule for life: Please avoid anything Fake.
Fake grass. Fake plants. Fake vents. Fake friends. Fake followers. Fake exhausts. Fake aerodynamics. Fake columns. Fake purses. Fake watches. Fake freaking everything!
Demand honest functionality from design.
From your coffee cup all the way to your car.
I’m not sure if it’s Less is More or…
It is What it Is… which is the opposite of Fake.
H.